LAKE BIWA, JAPAN’S LARGEST, SADDLED WITH PLASTIC WASTE

While fees for plastic shopping bags have become mandatory across Japan since July 1, a survey conducted by Shiga Prefecture revealed that plastic waste accounts for over 70% of trash found in Lake Biwa in western Japan, Kengo Suga wrote for Mainichi Shimbun on July 13, 2020.

As marine pollution has become a serious issue, the Shiga Prefectural Government hopes that the new implementation of charges for plastic shopping bags will encourage efforts to reduce plastic waste.

The bed of Lake Biwa, Japan's largest freshwater lake, is periodically cleaned in various locations across the prefecture. Akanoi Bay in the city of Moriyama, Shiga Prefecture, is said to be a location where garbage tends to accumulate as eight rivers coming from cultivated field and rice paddy land flow into it. Local residents and others have held cleanup activities in the area since 2018, and around 190 people helped out in June 2019. The Shiga Prefectural Government disclosed a report in February 2020 after examining the collected trash.

Among the 2,231 liters, or 322.17 kilos of garbage collected from the lake bottom, 1,662 liters, or 170.41 kilos, was plastic waste, which accounted for over 70% of the total volume. Among the types of plastic waste, plastic shopping bags and other kinds of bags were the largest in volume at 530 liters and weighing 74.43 kilos.